50-65

Thanks to "Do it yourself" outlets like Home Depot,Lowes etc. , you should expect a rise in gas as well as CO mishaps. They have dumbed down the plumbing trade so much , any shmoe can try his luck at gas piping. They are now selling gas flex over the counter so long as the customer bullsh*ts about their competency.

Same here. Sometimes they don't understand. Most of the time they just don't care. As long as SOMEONE shows up when they call 911.
Not a heated battle. I personally don't care. Some people have made firefighting a career choice, some haven't. Everyone for different reasons. I learned long ago that just because you do something for a living, doesn't really mean you can do the job. I'm just tired of those that think that because they get paid to do it, they are the only ones that can do it right.
Completely agree. I have been an advocate of more selective "hiring" for years.

About getting paid...? I can't tell you how many times people (general public civilian type) didn't know our local department was volunteer.
Bullshit and creative writing maybe. But unless I missed something, I didn't see anything about the building being unoccupied. Just that the 2 named residents escaped.
Of course, if they had been been a paid "Professional" department, their x-ray vision powers would have confirmed this.

About getting paid...? I can't tell you how many times people (general public civilian type) didn't know our local department was volunteer.
Bullshit and creative writing maybe. But unless I missed something, I didn't see anything about the building being unoccupied. Just that the 2 named residents escaped.
Of course, if they had been been a paid "Professional" department, their x-ray vision powers would have confirmed this.

I always felt it was a permanent solution to a temporary problem. However, for those in that dark place, the problems don't seem so temporary.
I don't condone it but I can understand it.

I always felt it was a permanent solution to a temporary problem. However, for those in that dark place, the problems don't seem so temporary.
I don't condone it but I can understand it.

I always felt it was a permanent solution to a temporary problem. However, for those in that dark place, the problems don't seem so temporary.
I don't condone it but I can understand it.

About getting paid...? I can't tell you how many times people (general public civilian type) didn't know our local department was volunteer.
Bullshit and creative writing maybe. But unless I missed something, I didn't see anything about the building being unoccupied. Just that the 2 named residents escaped.
Of course, if they had been been a paid "Professional" department, their x-ray vision powers would have confirmed this.

About getting paid...? I can't tell you how many times people (general public civilian type) didn't know our local department was volunteer.
Bullshit and creative writing maybe. But unless I missed something, I didn't see anything about the building being unoccupied. Just that the 2 named residents escaped.
Of course, if they had been been a paid "Professional" department, their x-ray vision powers would have confirmed this.

About getting paid...? I can't tell you how many times people (general public civilian type) didn't know our local department was volunteer.
Bullshit and creative writing maybe. But unless I missed something, I didn't see anything about the building being unoccupied. Just that the 2 named residents escaped.
Of course, if they had been been a paid "Professional" department, their x-ray vision powers would have confirmed this.

About getting paid...? I can't tell you how many times people (general public civilian type) didn't know our local department was volunteer.
Bullshit and creative writing maybe. But unless I missed something, I didn't see anything about the building being unoccupied. Just that the 2 named residents escaped.
Of course, if they had been been a paid "Professional" department, their x-ray vision powers would have confirmed this.

About getting paid...? I can't tell you how many times people (general public civilian type) didn't know our local department was volunteer.
Bullshit and creative writing maybe. But unless I missed something, I didn't see anything about the building being unoccupied. Just that the 2 named residents escaped.
Of course, if they had been been a paid "Professional" department, their x-ray vision powers would have confirmed this.

About getting paid...? I can't tell you how many times people (general public civilian type) didn't know our local department was volunteer.
Bullshit and creative writing maybe. But unless I missed something, I didn't see anything about the building being unoccupied. Just that the 2 named residents escaped.
Of course, if they had been been a paid "Professional" department, their x-ray vision powers would have confirmed this.

Just want to take a moment to say

HAPPY 238th BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!
and post this reminder of what today is really all about:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Doesn't surprise me anytime I hear that a company or person is leaving NY. Businesses, and the people they employ, are leaving. NY is losing population. 50 years ago the most populated state, now the 4th. I recently spent several days traveling through many upstate counties/towns from Roscoe to Oneonta and all through the Catskill Park region. There are more abandoned farms, houses and houses for sale than not. In one area I went through, nearly 2/3 of the houses/farms had "for sale" signs. Sad. A recent Gallup Poll found that 41% of current NY residents would leave if they could.

It's for sale if you're interested.

It's for sale if you're interested.

As we all prepare celebrate Memorial day 2014 with barbecues, parades and a day off I thought it might be fitting to put this day in perspective with a few facts.

1) Memorial Day was originally known a Decoration Day because it was a day when family and friends would gather to decorate the graves of the fallen as a remembrance. Food was often taken along and set out on sheets in the grass to foster a sense of community.

2) While the first Decoration Day events were held after the American Civil War in both the North and South, Waterloo New York was officially credited by Congressional act in 1966 as the birthplace of the tradition
3) A day set aside to remember the sacrifices of those lost became a national event in 1868

4) The term Memorial Day was first used in 1882 although for many the older term of Decoration Day remained in use until after World War 2. Memorial Day became the official name by Federal law in 1967

5) Traditionally Memorial Day is May 30. This along with 3 other holidays was changed to a specified Monday in 1971 by Federal law to allow for convenient 3 day weekends.

6) On Memorial Day, the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. The half-staff position remembers those who gave their lives in service of their country. At noon, their memory is raised by the living, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all.

7) And most important of all:
Since the birth of our great nation 1,321,612 Americans have given their lives to protect our freedoms and defend our country. We owe them all a debt that we can never repay. But we can and should remember. So before we drink that beer or eat that burger let us take just a moment to honor their memory and their sacrifice by saying thank you.

To all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation. Thank you for your service and thank you for my freedom

God bless America.

Or maybe, it's just because they can.

Or maybe, it's just because they can.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2014/May/05/Farrell_funr_set-05.html
For those that may be able to participate, Sgt Farrell, KIA in Afghanistan and member of Accord FD, will return to Stewart Airport on Wednesday, May 7. The time I have been told is around 10am, but you may want to confirm that. I do not know the route the procession will take.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2014/May/05/Farrell_funr_set-05.html
For those that may be able to participate, Sgt Farrell, KIA in Afghanistan and member of Accord FD, will return to Stewart Airport on Wednesday, May 7. The time I have been told is around 10am, but you may want to confirm that. I do not know the route the procession will take.

Our department has had such a policy for many years. In addition to the hours junior members are allowed at the firehouse, they are also prohibited from responding to calls outside the district, have to meet academic requirements, and their membership is subject to parental consent until they graduate or are otherwise considered to be emancipated.
Although I am not positive, the hours on school nights may be due to child labor laws.